Classic Rolled Sugar Cookies Recipe (Christmas Cookies)

I'm not a a baker!  I really don't like making these cookies because they take FOREVER but they were always a big hit and I spent many years helpin my mom with these cookies.  She usually did get the compliments, but she'd give us kids the credit for the decorating.  Ha ha!  I sure do miss my mom!

This is also all my brother ever wants for Christmas.  When you think about it, this is a very nice gift!  They take a lot of work, time, love, sweat, swears, and they are sweet and delicious.  I'm thinking GIFT CARD this year.  Ha ha!

My brother and my baby girl!

A funny story and then I'll share the recipe!  A few years ago, my sister sent me a picture of her showing me that she was baking these cookies for my brother's Christmas gift!  He's a sly devil, as he asked BOTH of us that year!  So I asked her for the recipe because obviously she had our mom's recipe.  She said she'd bring it to me when they came to see our new house.

She and her honey came to see us, from Charlotte, NC, before heading to my brothers.  She brought us some of the cookies but NO recipe.  She said, I didn't remind her to bring it.  Well... well... that was true.  Ha ha!  So, no recipe and we were a day away from our Christmas gathering.  Sigh!

Baby girl with my sister and her honey!

So began the frantic recipe hunt!  I thought mom always used her yellow cookbook when we made the cookies, so I went to my cookbook bookshelf and looked.  THE PAGE WAS MISSING!!!  So I looked in my grandmother's old Betty Crocker cookbook and the sugar cookie recipe page was missing from her's too!  WHAT THE...

Then I was really scrambling.  I looked on vintage recipe sites, pinterest, cookbook.com sites, and even my grandma's Encyclopedia of Cooking book.  In there, I found a recipe that seemed close.  After discussing this weirdness with hubby,  I wondered how my sister had the recipe.  Thinking back... I vaguely remembered emailing it to her when mom was still alive.  YES!  Hit the email archives... JACKPOT! (but I kept the Encyclopedia handy)



via GIPHY

So now that I have the recipe too, I'm putting it here so it won't mysteriously disappear again!

Making Christmas cookies or any cut out sugar cookies is always more fun if:
1. You enjoy baking
2. You do it family and friends (and a cocktail).
Doing it by yourself is torture, unless of course you are 1.

Rolled Sugar Cookies from the Pillsbury New Family Cookbook (1973)

Yield: 72 Cookies
Ingredients:
1 cup butter softened (I used real butter of course!)  {my mom used margarine }
1 cup sugar
1 egg
3 tablespoons cream or milk (I recommend 2% or higher - I used half and half)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tsp anise extract (Not sure if this was my mom's add in or in the original recipe.  We DO NOT like licorice so I used almond extract)
3 cups unsifted flour (with self-rising flour, omit baking powder and salt)
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt (I used my Himalayan pink salt and they were great!)

Directions:
In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar.
Beat in egg, cream, vanilla, and flavored extract
Stir in flour, baking powder, and salt until well mixed

Wrap the dough in wax paper and refrigerate for easier handling.

Getting ready to chill the dough while I chill with a rum and coke! 

Preheat oven to 400
Roll out dough, one-third at a time on a floured surface to 1/8 inch thickness.
Cut into desired shapes
Place 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets
Bake 5 - 8 minutes or until slightly golden.
Cool on rack

Decorate as desired

Enjoy!